Mr. President, keep your lie, period“No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” — President Barack Obama The now infamous words that President Obama uttered, spoke and proclaimed during interviews, speeches and campa...

Mustard greensIt’s mustard green season, and these cool weather vegetables are popping up in gardens all around the region. Cultivated throughout the South, these leafy greens are related to both collard greens and kale, and were first grown in the Himalayan region of India. Today they are cultivated all across Asia, South America, and throughout the American South, and are popular in Japanese, Chinese and Indian cooking. Mustard greens are a staple in sout...

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Meredith Martin-MoatsThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Committee’s task: cut deficit, dramaTwenty-nine members of the Senate and House met for the first time Wednesday to try to do what Congress has been unable to do for a while — govern responsibly and undramatically on a deadline but without creating a crisis. Expectations are modest for this conference committee, whose members hope to craft a proposal by Dec. 13 that gets us through a year or two without another shutdown or fiscal cliff. There also are intentions of replacing the...

Private option to face new pressureLITTLE ROCK — The computer problems that have frustrated many Americans trying to sign up for insurance under the federal health care law aren’t just a political liability for those in Washington who supported the 2010 law. They could also threaten Arkansas’ compromise plan to expand insurance coverage to thousands of low income workers. The glitches with the online insurance marketplace — as well as a wave of cancellation notices hitting indi...

State House Week in ReviewMore than 250,000 veterans call Arkansas home. That equals more than 8 percent of our entire population. As we approach Veteran’s Day, the 89th General Assembly would like to extend our appreciation to every single Arkansan and their families who have made tremendous sacrifices for our country. Veteran’s affairs have become a top priority for the 89th General Assembly. This is a very personal issue for this body, as 13 of our own members have ...

A nation awash in alcoholYou no doubt have heard the saying, “Give him an inch and he will take a mile,” or as Conway High School football coach Clint Ashcraft famously said, “What you will settle for is what you will have.” Based on a news report I saw a while back, I can tell you what we have. We have a nation awash in alcohol. The sad thing about it is based on the laws in our country, I don’t know what anyone can do about it even if they wanted to. While state and...

Term limits popular but not perfectI’m for term limits, but my wife, Melissa, is really for them. One six-year term for everybody, and then they should return to real life, she says. To illustrate, she recently asked this: What if jurors were elected? Let’s explore that. With juries, legal amateurs temporarily are entrusted with life and death decisions because, when it comes to justice, experience is less important than integrity, and integrity is a tough thing to hold onto wh...

Public/private FOIA issues ariseA knotty freedom of information question surfaced during the past few days, and it touches on a subject that needs a legislative review. That would be the issue of whether a private company providing services to a public agency is subject to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act and, if so, to what extent. The subject came up when a Jonesboro Sun reporter on Friday asked Chad Niell, chief executive officer of Tiger Correctional Services, to ...

Glitches overshadow health care rolloutAfter several years of debate, planning and tweaking of the Affordable Care Act, the main component is finally here. Enrollment into the health care exchanges has hardly been a booming success as proponents predicted. Instead, the launch has been closer to the train wreck predicted by opponents. The biggest embarrassment for the rollout has been the numerous problems with the website — HealthCare.gov — which was billed as the simplest way for ...

Poll equally grim for GOP, DemocratsLITTLE ROCK — A two-term Democratic senator sees a drop in his approval numbers as he gears up for re-election, an increasing number of voters say they’re worried the state is headed in the wrong direction and more of them are blaming Democrats than Republicans for the federal government shutdown. Time for Arkansas Republicans to pop open the champagne and celebrate, right? Not so fast. The latest figures from the University of Arkansas’ annua...

Explaining commonomicsOne of my favorite magazines is YES!, a national publication striving to, as they explain it, “reframe the biggest problems of our time in terms of their solutions.” In both their online and print publications they provide inspiring stories of everyday people who are engaged in citizen engagement from the bottom up. Most of the stories in the magazine aren’t about politicians or large non-profits or philanthropists — the societal roles we ofte...

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Meredith Martin-MoatsThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

How Pope County taxes workUntil I became a member of the Quorum Court I never fully understood how Pope County’s taxes were collected and distributed. I thought I would share some of what I have learned in hopes of giving the public a better basic understanding of county taxation. Pope County operates the vast majority of the county offices out of a general operating fund called County General which the Quorum Court presides over. The county derives its taxes from two ...

Simplifying governmentPaying taxes and renewing vehicle registrations is a necessary part of American life for most of us, but rarely an enjoyable one. Governments should do what they can to at least make the process as simple as possible for its citizens. This is often easier said than done. However, Arkansas has made great technological strides in recent years to simplify both of these obligations. Not long ago, our Department of Finance and Administration was pr...

Ice cream’s Ben: Make money, differenceIf you see a dollar bill stamped in red with the words, “Not to be used for bribing politicians,” there’s a chance it was marked by a famous ice cream maker while he was visiting Arkansas. Ben Cohen, the “Ben” of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, stamped bills at Little Rock’s River Market Oct. 22 to promote StampStampede, which aims to build popular support to amend the Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. That’s th...

Poll equally grim for GOP, DemsLITTLE ROCK (AP) — A two-term Democratic senator sees a drop in his approval numbers as he gears up for re-election, an increasing number of voters say they're worried the state is headed in the wrong direction and more of them are blaming Democrats than Republicans for the federal government shutdown. Time for Arkansas Republicans to pop open the champagne and celebrate, right? Not so fast. The latest figures from the University of Arkansas' ...

Race-hustling results, againOne of the reasons for being glad to be as old as I am is that I may be spared living to see a race war in America. Race wars are often wars in which nobody wins and everybody ends up much worse off than they were before. Initial skirmishes in that race war have already begun, and have in fact been going on for some years. But public officials pretend that it is not happening, and the mainstream media seldom publish it at all, except in ways t...

Why civic clubs are decliningIn a June 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal, Niall Ferguson addresses the decline of American associational life. He quotes from a 1995 essay by Robert Pittman titled “Bowling Alone,” which documents the exodus of Americans from bowling leagues, Rotary Clubs and the like. Since then, the downward trend in “social capital” has only continued. According to the 2006 World Values Survey, active membership even in religious associations has d...

Race-hustling resultsBob Costas is one of the premier sportscasters and a very smart guy, so it was somewhat surprising to see him join the chorus of those decrying the fact that the owner of the Washington Redskins is resisting the pressures to change the name of his football team. The argument is that American Indians are offended by the name, though there is no compelling evidence that most American Indians are worked up about it. Nor is there any evidence that...

Griffin chooses home over HouseMonday of last week, U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., took the 8:55 a.m. flight from Little Rock to Washington, as usual. He hit the ground running that afternoon and didn’t stop much until he was on the plane headed back to Little Rock Thursday afternoon. He spent 30 minutes with his family and then headed to a fundraiser — mostly close friends, he said, who listened as he talked about the personal difficulties of serving in Congress. It was ni...

Dr. Politics rules on Ted CruzAsk Dr. Politics! You are fair, and we are unbalanced! Dear Dr. Politics: There is no sugarcoating it. The website has been working too slowly. I think it’s fair to say nobody is more upset than I am. Can you help the surge of the best and the brightest to fix the Obamacare site? Asking for a friend. Answer: First, is your Wi-Fi router on? A lot of people forget this. They also can’t remember where their Wi-Fi router is. Yours may be in the Si...